Monday, 21 May 2012

Do not read on unless you've seen Season 5, Episode 10 of AMC's "Mad Men," entitled "Christmas Waltz."

I'm in New York for Monday's Peabody Awards ceremony (and feel free to follow my Twitter for updates on that event). But my weekend has been very busy with travel and other things, and then, as I settled in to my hotel on Sunday night to watch "Mad Men," I realized my hotel does not carry AMC.

So there was a moment of panic.

Thanks to some help from a fan of the show (thank you, Carla Day!), I was able to find a legal way to watch "Mad Men" on Sunday night. But due to time constraints and various other factors, I wasn't able to watch the episode twice, as I normally do, and I wasn't able to take copious notes on my second viewing, another thing I normally do when I'm writing about the show.

What follows, then, are five quick thoughts about the episode, which saw some financial naughtiness from Lane Pryce, the return of Paul Kinsey and the kind of sexual chemistry that could power a medium-sized city for several years.

TORONTO -- The first-ever transgender contestant to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant has lost her bid to win the title.

Jenna Talackova, 23, competed with 61 contestants Saturday night. She was among the final 12 contestants.

Talackova, who was born a male, underwent a sex change four years ago. The Vancouver, British Columbia, native was initially denied entry to Canada's pageant because she was not a natural-born female. Donald Trump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, subsequently overruled that decision.

The 6-foot-1 (1.8-meter-1 centimeter) blond beauty strutted the runway and competed in the bikini and formal wear contests.

The winner advances to the international Miss Universe competition in December.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Public attitudes have shifted sharply in the last 10 years. Chalk it up to familiarity – among family, friends, co-workers and prime-time TV characters.

People rally in San Francisco in 2010 against California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage. Though many states don't recognize same-sex marriage, public attitudes have tilted sharply toward approval in the last decade. (Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times / August 4, 2010)

SAN FRANCISCO — In 1958, the Gallup Poll asked Americans whether they approved or disapproved of marriage between blacks and whites. The response was overwhelming: 94% were opposed, a sentiment that held for decades. It took nearly 40 years until a majority of those surveyed said marriage between people of different skin colors was acceptable.

By contrast, attitudes toward gays and lesbians have changed so much in just the last 10 years that, as Gallup reported last week, "half or more now agree that being gay is morally acceptable, that gay relations ought to be legal and that gay or lesbian couples should have the right to legally marry." (In 1996, when Gallup first asked about legalizing same-sex marriage, 68% of Americans were opposed.)

Politically, President Obama felt it safe enough recently to abandon his studied ambiguity and endorse same-sex marriage amid a tough reelection campaign. Days later, a top Republican pollster, Jan van Lohuizen, issued a warning to his party, suggesting opponents were on the wrong side of the issue. Support has grown, he wrote in a strategy memo, "at an accelerated rate with no sign of slowing down."

A protester is detained at a march and rally during this weekend's NATO summit in Chicago Sunday, May 20, 2012 in Chicago. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

CHICAGO — Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Chicago on Sunday in one of the city's largest demonstrations in years, airing grievances about war, climate change and a wide range of other complaints as world leaders assembled for a NATO summit.

The protest, which for months had stirred worries about violence in the streets, drew together a broad assortment of participants, including peace activists joining with war veterans and people more focused on economic inequality. But the diversity of opinions also sowed doubts about whether there were too many messages to be effective.

And some of the most enduring images of the event were likely to be from the end – when a small group of demonstrators clashed with a line of police who tried to keep them from the lakeside convention center where President Barack Obama was hosting the gathering.

The protesters tried to move east toward McCormick Place, with some hurling sticks and bottles at police. Officers responded by swinging their batons. The two sides were locked in a standoff for nearly two hours, with police blocking the protesters' path and the crowd refusing to leave. Some protesters had blood streaming down their faces.

Authorities were seen making arrests one by one and leading individual demonstrators away in handcuffs.